Patients hail hospital care . . shame about the food

Published on Tuesday 27 July 2010 14:41

HOSPITAL care in the Lothians has been praised by patients, although more than a quarter still grumble about the food.

Health chiefs will be pleased with the overall results of the survey, which questioned patients on every aspect of hospital. One of the few black marks was the quality of food - 26 per cent said it as either bad or very bad.

NHS Lothian said it was happy with the Better Together Inpatient Experience research, and vowed to address any shortcomings patients - all of whom had spent at least one night in hospital - had cited.

The vast majority of people said they were happy with the information provided to them about their hospital stay, said their ward or room was clean, and rated the overall hospital environment as positive.

Nurse director for the health board Melanie Hornett said: "We will take the comments from the survey on board and use them constructively to help shape our service. We are determined to provide the best possible care for patients and this survey will help us to achieve that goal.

"We are pleased that our patients are generally happy with the levels of care and service we provide."

She added that food, while not as high scoring as other areas, still fared quite well.

At the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary the patients' meals are controlled by Consort, the private firm that built and maintains the hospital, and it has often been criticised for not being up to scratch.

Two years ago magazine Which? criticised ERI food as being too fatty and salty.

The Western General was also slammed for replacing fresh meals with frozen ones while in search of extra space on the site in place of the kitchens.

Ms Hornett added: "We are pleased that the majority of patients enjoyed their food while in hospital and gave it a positive score. However, we will continue working to improve our services in this area."

A total of 84 per cent of the 1256 patients who responded said the toilets were clean, 80 per cent said they were not at any time bothered by other patients or visitors. Almost everyone said their privacy and dignity were maintained as best as they possibly could be.

Public Health Minister Shona Robison said: "It is always disappointing when a patient has an unsatisfactory experience from the NHS and we expect NHS boards to use the results of these surveys to drive up standards of care."